An Audit Quality Control System: Essential Elements pdf

United States General Accounting Office GAO Office of Policy August 1993 An Audit Quality Control System: Essential Elements GAO/OP-4.1.6 [...]... prevents another from being done Good jobs should give way to better ones What Are the Right Jobs? Audit organizations must meet many requirements Decisions must be made on what to do first and over time Many factors influence those decisions A good planning system can help ensure good choices While audit organizations share the need to plan, no single planning system likely meets the needs of each But answering... significant and valued responsibility; appraisal and award/reward systems recognize and reinforce the value of audit outcomes and reward accomplishments and proactive, innovative, and creative approaches in achieving desired outcomes; and training programs reinforce these values and encourage staff to prepare action plans to get recommendations accepted and effectively implemented Monitoring and followup... assignment planning phase or early in the data collection and analysis phase to allow for appropriate intervention and redirection The purpose of this guide is to provide helpful hints for use by federal, state, and local audit organizations in designing their systems to ensure consistent quality products that can be relied on by customers and stakeholders It raises key questions that managers and staff... key questions can help develop quality plans: Key Factors in Planning • What are the interests and/or needs of the legislative (or other) body that the audit organization reports to? How effective are planning efforts in meeting longer-range legislative requirements and in addressing current issues as they arise? • How good is the framework within which plans are developed? Does the planning system... making choices within and among programs for which the organization has auditing responsibility? Page 12 GAO/OP-4.1.6 Chapter 2 Doing the Right Job In all but the smallest audit organizations, work focuses on many governmental programs and subprograms and on a range of objectives to make audits better and cost less Sorting this out within a framework makes cross-comparisons easier and helps to focus what... period While an approved plan is an achievement, it should not be viewed in concrete; instead, it should change when managers consider it necessary Multiyear Plans A good framework provides planning focus—helping to determine the most productive jobs in a planning area—and getting the most out of “must do” jobs Planning works best when it covers a period of years in which longer-range objectives can be sought... Top Management Involvement Approved multiyear plans represent major organizational decisions about resource usage for an extended period They set basic directions Top management involvement is essential This normally includes (1) providing guidance on plan development, (2) setting resource levels for each planning area after considering the needs of all planning areas, (3) reviewing plan proposals and... financial specialists, social science analysts, attorneys, and evaluators as well as experts in a wide range of disciplines (e.g., transportation specialists, engineers, natural resource managers, psychologists, economists, actuaries, physical and computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians) Few audit organizations will have staff with all these disciplines and expertise in house, but they should... for the auditor and the audit organization Were the results of our work used? Did we have a beneficial impact? Did we make the difference our work sought? If staff can answer those questions positively, they are providing the quality service that stakeholders can expect every time (See ch 4.) • Demonstrating consistent quality Care is taken to build quality into job selection, planning, performance,... possible to modify its objectives and still realize significant, worthwhile results But a job should not be initiated or kept alive with the hope that things will fall into place later • Could another organization do the job? If there is a choice, an audit organization should do those jobs for which it is most clearly suited In larger audit organizations, work plans can help alert field offices to upcoming . states: Audit organizations conducting government audits should have an appropriate quality control system in place and participate in an external quality control. 1993 An Audit Quality Control System: Essential Elements GAO/OP-4.1.6